al-Hudhayl, from Khabbab, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Abu Nu‘aym said: “It is singular among the reports of al-Ajlah and al-Thawri; Abu Ahmad alone transmitted it.”

I say: This is a good chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and are among those relied upon by Muslim, apart from al-Ajlah, who was al-Ajlah ibn ‘Abd Allah ibn Hujayyah. He was truthful, as al-Dhahabi stated in al-Du‘afa’ and al-Hafiz in al-Taqrib. There is no criticism of him other than his being a Shi‘ite, but this does not impair his transmission, since the essential criterion in such matters is truthfulness, as al-Hafiz explained in Sharh al-Nukhbah.

Al-Haythami said in al-Majma‘ (1/189): “Al-Tabarani narrated it in al-Kabir, and its narrators have been declared trustworthy. There is disagreement concerning al-Ajlah al-Kindi, though the majority consider him trustworthy.”

‘Abd al-Haqq al-Ishbili included the hadith in al-Ahkam (folio 8/1) and said: “Al-Bazzar narrated it through Sharik—namely, ibn ‘Abd Allah—from Abu Sinan, from Abu—perhaps Ibn Abi—al-Hudhayl, from Khabbab, attributed to the Prophet. He said: ‘This is a good chain of transmission.’ This is what he said, though it is not a report that may be used as proof.”

I say: That is because of the weakness of Sharik ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Qadi; however, the first route corroborates and strengthens it. Al-Haythami did not include it in Kashf al-Astar ‘an Zawa’id al-Bazzar, so perhaps it occurs somewhere other than his Musnad.

“Storytelling”: In al-Nihayah, it states: “In one version: ‘When they perished, they took to storytelling’; that is, they relied on speech and abandoned deeds, and this became the cause of their destruction. Or the reverse: when they perished through abandoning deeds, they gave themselves over to storytelling.”

I say: It is also possible to say that the cause of their destruction was their preachers’ preoccupation with stories and anecdotes rather than religious understanding and beneficial knowledge that acquaints people with their religion and thereby impels them to act